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Meghan Markle opens up on dad Thomas Markle's 'betrayal' & paparazzi scandal: Hard for me to reconcile
Almost a day after Meghan and Harry's bombshell interview, additional clips were aired on CBS This Morning which features the Duchess opening up about her father Thomas Markle.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey created a rippling effect not just in the UK but echoed far and wide. Almost a day after the interview, additional clips from Meghan and Oprah's chat were aired by on CBS This Morning. This new footage showed the Duchess opening up about her father Thomas Markle who had hogged limelight weeks before her wedding to Prince Harry in 2018.
The media and public at large were well aware that Meghan and Harry were dating for quite sometime before they decided to walk down the aisle in 2018. Speaking about her parents, Meghan said, "There was such an obsession with anything in my world, including tracking down my parents, and I did everything I could to protect both of them in that media frenzy. But for over a year, the UK tabloids were trying to find my dad, offering people so much money to try to find his address. Once they did, I remember being told, there was a huge headline like, 'We found him' or 'We've got him.' We're talking about someone's father. And from that point, the tabloids, they moved into the apartment next door and across from him, descended on this small town, giving him gifts. The whole thing brings us to where we are today."
For the unversed, just a week before Meghan and Harry were set to get married, Thomas Markle was accused of staging photos with the paparazzi for which he was paid a handsome amount. The paparazzi scandal came as a shocker and even led to Thomas stating that he won't be attending his daughter's wedding since he had suffered a heart attack due to stress.
When asked by Oprah if her father's actions and paparazzi scandal felt like betrayal, Meghan said, "If we're going to use the word betrayal..it's because when I asked him…When we were told by the comms team this is a story that's going to be coming out—which, by the way, the tabloids had apparently known for a month or so and decided to hold until the Sunday before our wedding because they wanted to create drama, which is a really key point in all of this: They don't report the news, they create the news—we called my dad and we asked him, and he said, 'No, absolutely not.'"
As per reports, Thomas denied colluding with the paps and reportedly lied to Meghan and Harry on call. Despite that, Meghan revealed that she was willing to help her dad.
Oprah also asked Meghan if Thomas' inability to protect her caused a strain in the relationship. She said, "I mean, I look at Archie, I think about this child and I go, 'I genuinely can't imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child.' I can't imagine it. So, it's hard for me to reconcile that."
Giving an example of her mum Doria Ragland who has been by her side, Meghan added, "Everyone has accountability. Look, they've hunted my mom down and you've never heard her say a word. She's remained in silent dignity for four years watching me go through this."
Over the years, Thomas Markle has spoken to the press on multiple occasions. The latest one was in January 2020 when Harry and Meghan decided to step back from their roles as working members of the royal family.
Click here to watch new footage from Oprah's interview with Meghan and Harry.
